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Health department amends Cotter Corp. license

Mill must follow extensive cleanup process

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has issued an amended radioactive materials license to Cotter Corp., to reflect current activities at the site.

Cotter applied for termination of its operating license in January 2012 after announcing it did not intend to resume uranium milling operations at the site.

Therefore, the license was amended to delete references to

operations and to shift existing

requirements from operations to

decommissioning and reclamation.

"Amending Cotter's license coordinates regulatory activities and the facility decommissioning and closure process," said Gary Baughman, Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division director. "The state, EPA and Cotter will now focus on the planning and work that needs to be done to successfully

terminate the license, close out the Consent Decree from 1988 and

remove the site from the National Priorities List."

Because Cotter is no longer

authorized to operate the mill, the

license was amended to delete references to operations and to shift existing requirements from operations to decommissioning and reclamation.

These preexisting requirements include decommissioning and reclamation work plans, Radiological Health and Safety Procedures

Manual updates, addressing radon releases from the impoundments, daily perimeter inspections, and the Lincoln Park Water Use Survey.

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The Lincoln Park Water Use Survey is conducted to evaluate who may be using ground water in the Lincoln Park area and for what purpose. Well water users in the historically affected Lincoln Park area have been offered and given municipal water hookups by Cotter as an

alternative to using the ground water.

Cotter must satisfy several responsibilities to successfully close the site.

Ultimately, the company must terminate the radioactive materials license issued by the state, but must follow it throughout the decommissioning and cleanup process. A number of investigations and response actions have occurred at the site under a Consent Decree/Remedial Action Plan (CD/RAP), which Colorado entered into with the Cotter in 1988 to settle natural resource damage claims related to mill. The Consent Decree will have to be satisfied and closed. In addition, the site will have to be removed from the Superfund National Priorities List by completing the rigorous requirements of that Environmental Protection Agency program.

Although ground water monitoring and other activities approved by the state prior to March 2012 have continued, the state has not initiated any new studies or work since that time while a Community Advisory Group is being re-formed. A Community Advisory Group comprises community representatives who are knowledgeable about a site and who can provide input regarding cleanup studies and work to the state and federal regulatory agencies overseeing the site.

Once the Community Advisory Group has been re-formed and the pause in work is lifted, the license as amended will provide a streamlined regulatory framework to guide the process.

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